The Romney campaign announced today that it raised $106.1 million in June, its best fundraising month to date. The money was raised by Romney for President, Romney Victory and the Republican National Committee. The campaign reported having $160 million on hand at the end of the month. June’s loot far exceeds May’s total of more than $76 million, out-raising the Obama campaign by $16 million. The Obama campaign has not yet released its own fundraising numbers for the month of June.

Kevin Madden, a Republican communications expert with long ties to Mitt Romney, will become a more frequent and visible spokesman for the presidential campaign, a source close to the decision said on Friday. The increased responsibilities for Mr. Madden came in the wake of criticism from nervous Republicans about Mr. Romney’s campaign team. The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial that the campaign “looks confused in addition to being politically dumb.”

Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign on Monday rejected a Republican attack on the Affordable Care Act, repudiating a contention made in last week’s Supreme Court decision that the law’s requirement that individuals carry medical coverage amounts to a tax. The Romney team’s refusal to invoke the word “tax” with regard to the individual mandate puts the candidate at odds with others in his party at a moment when Republicans are attempting to capi­tal­ize on the Supreme Court’s decision, which deemed President Obama’s health-care law constitutional. Some Republican-led states are trying to thwart the legislation’s effort to cover the poor. In an...

<p>Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress has the power to do just about anything it desires provided it's called a tax. It's hard not to notice that the Progressive march toward totalitarianism in America has a decidedly bipartisan feel. Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the high court's majority opinion, is an appointee of "compassionate conservative" George W. Bush.</p>

BRUNSWICK, Ohio (AP) — Mitt Romney is refusing to say that he would overturn President Barack Obama's new policy allowing some young illegal immigrants to stay in the United States. The Republican presidential candidate tells CBS” ”Face the Nation” that if he’s president, Obama’s executive order “would be overtaken by events … by virtue of my putting in place a long-term solution.” Romney was asked three times in the interview if he would overturn Obama’s order, but he didn’t directly answer the question. Instead, he said would work to pass a law to help those young people who were “brought...

We’re a long way from November 6 (145 days for those who are keeping score at home), but Rasmussen’s latest polling of likely voters in states across the land shows Mitt Romney currently leading President Barack Obama in the quest for electoral votes. In fact, if the 9 key swing states were each to go according to Rasmussen’s latest polling, and if the 41 other states (plus Washington, D.C.) were each to go as they would be expected to go in a tight race, Obama would have 243 electoral votes and Romney 269 — enough for a tie (and an...

Why is Barack Obama’s road to re-election so steep and uncertain at this stage? There are five important reasons. 1. An indefensible record. Every election which features an incumbent is, at least in good measure, a referendum on the record of the incumbent. The problem facing Obama is that he can’t offer a convincing case that his policies have succeeded. Recall that at the outset of his presidency, Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer, “I will be held accountable. I’ve got four years… If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.” Yet...

A battle over a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman appears headed for the Supreme Court after an appeals court ruled Thursday that denying benefits to married gay couples is unconstitutional. In a unanimous decision, the three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said the 1996 law deprives gay couples of the rights and privileges granted to heterosexual couples. The court didn't rule on the law's more politically combustible provision — that states without same-sex marriage cannot be forced to recognize gay unions performed in states where...

(Bay City News) A federal judge ruled in Oakland that the state's public-employee pension system must make long-term care insurance equally available to same-sex spouses and partners. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken said a provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, is unconstitutional to the extent that it limits same-sex spouses of state workers in obtaining the insurance. . . Wilken said the DOMA ban violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal treatment. She wrote that there was no proof the DOMA provision was "rationally related to a legitimate government interest." . . In today's ruling, Wilken...

The nation’s changing views on same-sex marriage and new support from black leaders could put Maryland on track toward becoming the first state to cast a public vote in favor of gay marriage, according to a poll released Thursday. The survey from liberal-leaning Public Policy Polling showed 57 percent of Maryland voters would vote for gay marriage if it is put to referendum this fall and just 37 percent would vote against it — a stark departure from past polls by the firm and other groups that have shown Marylanders to be almost evenly divided on the issue. More than...

Mitt Romney’s campaign manager rejected efforts to use President Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in ads attacking the president, as reportedly planned by a “super PAC” working toward electing Mr. Romney in November. “Unlike the Obama campaign, Gov. Romney is running a campaign based on jobs and the economy, and we encourage everyone else to do the same,” the campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, said in a statement on Thursday morning. “President Obama’s team said they would ‘kill Romney,’ and, just last week, David Axelrod referred to individuals opposing the president as ‘contract killers.’ It’s clear President Obama’s team...

The Culture War rages all around us. One side in this war supports abortion and promotes homosexual marriage. They would lower the age of consent and make divorce as easy as changing your clothes. In fact, they have already succeeded in advancing their agenda in Europe and America...

Former Fifth District Congressman Virgil Goode blasted presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney as “the father of homosexual marriages” in a statement released to the news media on the eve of Romney’s visit to Liberty University this weekend. Goode, now running for president on the Constitution Party ticket, referred to Romney’s move as Massachusetts governor to issue same-sex marriage licenses in the wake of a state-court ruling. “Gov. Romney did not stand fast in favor of traditional marriage,” said Goode, who lost his Fifth District seat in 2008 to Democrat Tom Perriello. Goode said he has been a “consistent supporter...

A day after Mitt Romney said he was “fine” with gay adoption, he took it back. Suddenly, it’s not “fine.” He said on Thursday: “And if two people of the same gender want to live together, want to have a loving relationship, or even to adopt a child — in my state, individuals of the same sex were able to adopt children. In my view, that’s something that people have a right to do. But to call that ‘marriage’ is something that, in my view, is a departure from the real meaning of that word.” On Friday,he was asked, in...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney sought on Saturday to calm fears that his Mormon faith would be an obstacle to evangelical Christian voters, stressing shared conservative values while acknowledging religious differences. In a speech at conservative Christian Liberty University—where it is taught that Mormonism is a cult—Romney stressed their common goal of service to God and declared his opposition to gay marriage, a position essential for winning the majority of evangelicals in November. "People of different faiths like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology,"...

Mitt Romney stated today that he wanted marriage defined on the federal level as being between a man and woman only, but also noted that he backs gay adoption. “Let me make it very clear, which is that my preference would be to have a national standard that defines marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman,” Romney told Fox Business Network’s Neil Cavuto. Referring to domestic partnership benefits, Romney added, “That would then allow states to determine what rights would be provided for people of the same gender that wanted to have a relationship.” “I believe that...

Mitt Romney reaffirmed his view that marriage is between "a man and a woman," offering a sharp contrast to President Obama who announced earlier today that he now backs the right of gay couples to marry. Speaking to reporters after a campaign event in Oklahoma City, Romney said his position on same sex marriage is unchanged despite Obama's shift on the issue. "I have the same view on marriage that I had when I was governor. I believe marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman," Romney said. "I have the same view I've had since, well, running...

RNC Chairman reince Priebus on MSNBC (May 7, 2012) [1:57-2:32] Andrea Mitchell: "Let me ask you about this whole issue of gay marriage and give you a chance to respond... what is the latest position of Mitt Romney and Republicans on this issue [same-sex marriage]?" Reince Priebus: "Governor Romney and the Republican Party have been pretty clear, marriage is between one man and one woman. We believe ultimately that you can't federalize that kind of mandate, which is why we believe that individual states can make that decision on their own..."

Early election results are in for some of the biggest races in the North Carolina primary. Live Updates, Live Video: N.C. primary coverage Track the WXII12.com live wire as we post information throughout the day, including pictures from the polling places, quotes, polling figures and more! We'll also be pulling in Twitter feeds from WXII reporters. More According to the State Board of Elections website, with more than 600,000 votes counted, Amendment One had 55 percent voting for it and 44 percent voting against it. The amendment, if passed, would constitutionally make marriage between a man and a woman the...

Cher Tweets "@cher "If ROMNEY gets elected I don't know if i can breathe same air as Him & his Right Wing Racist Homophobic Women Hating Tea Bagger Masters" And again, @cher "TOO HARSH ? Thats me Holding BACK! They care nothing about the POOR The OLD The SICK The HUNGRY CHILDREN & People striving 4 a Better LIFE !" Finally,(Mercifully) @cher "Tell The Truth (lyric of new song) Supreme Court GONE,Women & Children Left Behind! GOD HELP US !" What the heck happened to Cher? Dumped Sonny. Too many drugs with Gregg Allman? Hired a lesbian sitter for Chastity....

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19 (see trends). Looking at Tuesday's upcoming primaries, the GOP race in Alabama is essentially a three-way tie, while Mitt Romney leads by eight in Mississippi. Nationally, Romney now leads Rick Santorum by 12 points. Regardless of who they want to win, 80% of Republican Primary Voters nationwide believe Romney will be the party's nominee. With the...

In Mississippi, Santorum Makes Case For Two-Man Race By NBC's Andrew Rafferty JACKSON, Miss. -- Rick Santorum called on Mississippi voters to deliver the knockout blow that would end Newt Gingrich's candidacy and make it a two-man race between Mitt Romney and the former Pennsylvania senator for the Republican nomination. "You have an opportunity here in Mississippi to narrow this race, narrow this race to a conservative versus the insider moderate. I ask you here tonight to stand with me," Santorum told a crowd of 300 at the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Museum on Wednesday. "If we win Mississippi, this...

Yesterday, Mitt Romney said he’s “not going to say outrageous things about the president.” Trouble with that statement is that “outrageous” is a pretty subjective adjective. Outrageous to whom? Apparently, Romney meant to say he’s not going to say anything about the president that would outrage the left — because he doesn’t seem to be afraid to say something about the president that would outrage the right. In fact, he did just that earlier today, when he essentially said the president shouldn’t be held responsible for the high price of gas. “I think people recognize that the president can’t precisely...

BOSTON -- Mitt Romney's campaign gathered the national press corps in their campaign war room this morning to deliver a simple message: It would take an "act of God" for any candidate not named Mitt Romney to win the Republican nomination. The Boston-based campaign projected confidence in Romney's ability to win the nomination given the emerging delegate math in the campaign following last night's Super Tuesday contests. "We will get to 1,144 whether it's on someone else’s timeline, or on our timeline," said one top Romney aide. "We will get to 1,144 and be the Republican nominee." The background briefing...

[Excerpts from the news video] ... Mitt Romney- "I'm a big believer in getting money where the money is, and the money is in Washington. ... I've learned from my Olympic experience, if you have people who really understand how Washington works and have personal associations there, you can get money to help build economic development opportunities. ... We actually received over 410 million dollars from the Federal Government for the Olympic games. That is a huge increase over anything that I have ever done before. We did that by going after every agency in government. ... I believe that...

DETROIT, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Mitt Romney was a double winner Tuesday, capturing the Michigan and Arizona Republican presidential primaries, results showed. The Detroit Free Press declared Romney the victor over his GOP rivals in Michigan. With about 74 percent of the precincts counted, Romney had 317,258 votes (41 percent) to Rick Santorum's 286,530 (37 percent), results posted by the Free Press showed. Ron Paul was third with 88,521 votes (12 percent) and Newt Gingrich followed with 50,726 votes (7 percent). Another 2 percent voted "uncommitted" and a handful of votes went to several other Republicans who are no longer...

No #s yet, just some tidbits: I'd expect Michigan results between 10 and 11 tonight, and Arizona results between midnight and 1 AM (all eastern) Early observations on today's polls: Michigan still pretty close, but Romney headed for a huge win in Arizona. It looks like Romney has banked about a 30 point lead among early voters in Arizona and they're more than half the electorate. From the findings I didn't expect file: Babeu still seen more favorably than not by Arizona Republicans. Santorum's favorability numbers not what they were a week ago- the shine is finally wearing off with...

For those out there loving the current Republican race but worrying that it has become somewhat orthodox in appearance and stable in candidates and support numbers, fear not: ABC News’ Jonathan Karl has the blind item for you. In the most mysterious and, for the GOP, worrisome dispatch on the Republican field in a while, Karl reports that a “prominent Republican senator” told him that the Party will not stand for a Mitt Romney loss in Michigan, and that he expects a result like that to lead the Senator to “publicly call for the party to find a new candidate,”...

850 Plus Rabbis at Chanukah Conclave Denounce Romney as a “Dangerous Homosexualist Urge Mormon Church to Sanction Him At a special Chanukah conclave, The Rabbinical Alliance of America, a 70 year old organization of over 850 Orthodox Jewish Rabbis in the United States and Canada, serving approximately one half-million religious Jews, has condemned the decades long pro-homosexual record of former Governor Mitt Romney. Spokesman Rabbi Yehuda Levin declared that “Chanukah commemorates the defeat of the Syrian Greek efforts to impose their pagan culture on the Jewish people. The Jews rejected the intergenerational homosexual activity which was a prominent aspect of...

New York Times ^ | January 21, 2012 | JIM RUTENBERG, ASHLEY PARKER and JEFF ZELENY

With Mitt Romney facing the biggest challenge to his presidential aspirations since he announced his candidacy, his aides acknowledged Friday what seemed unthinkable just seven days ago: He could lose the South Carolina primary. After arriving here last week fresh off of what seemed to be two victories in a row in Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr. Romney was suddenly confronting the prospect of leaving as the winner of only one of the first three nominating contests. Having been stripped of his victory in Iowa on Thursday after a recount that gave the state to Rick Santorum, Mr. Romney now...

Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich criticized gay marriage during Saturday night's Republican debate in New Hampshire.The issue came up when a Yahoo! News reader asked, “Given that you oppose gay marriage, what do you want gay people to do who want to form loving, committed, long-term relationships? What is your solution?” Romney and Gingrich answered that while they support limited protections for gay and lesbian couples, both believe marriage should remain a heterosexual union.Gingrich offered a two-part answer, which included the suggestion that gay couples are merely friends and that the media was biased on the issue.“I think what...

Contrada details how Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney supported the homosexual and transgender agenda on same-sex ‘marriage,’ sexual-radical indoctrination in the schools, and societal transformation – while posing as a defender of the Constitution and traditional family values. Mitt Romney is no conservative, despite his attempts to appeal to that element in the Republican Party. He is an ‘establishment fixer’ – a preserver of the status quo at best, or a promoter of social liberal causes and institutions at worst. In Massachusetts, the establishment – protected and advanced by Romney – was uniquely committed to the radical homosexual and transgender agenda....

Last August, I wrote the following about Mitt Romney’s odds of winning the Republican nomination: In a sense, the stronger President Obama looks next year, the better Romney’s chances of being nominated. He needs the prospect of an uphill general-election battle to keep his potential rivals for establishment support safely on the sidelines. And then he needs that same establishment to rally around him once the primary voting starts — not out of love or admiration, but out of fear of the populist alternative. Six months later, this is almost exactly how things are playing out. In many ways, Romney...